GOD'S WORD TO WOMEN

God is calling women to the full redemption for which they were created and which He purchased for them on Calvary. He wants woman to walk in the fullness of the original, pre-Fall relationship that He had with her as well as Adam.

Word Study

EZER KENEGDO

Usages of 'ezer in the Old Testament show that in most cases God is an
'ezer to human beings, which calls to question if the word "helper" is a valid
interpretation of 'ezer in any instance it is used. "Evidence
indicates that the word 'ezer originally had two roots, each beginning
with different guttural sounds. One meant "power" and the other
"strength." As time passed, the two guttural sounds merged, but the meanings
remained the same. The article below by William Sulik explains this point
quite well. He references R. David Freedman and Biblical Archaeology
Review 9 [1983]: 56-58).

"She was to be his "helper"--at least that is how most of the
translations have interpreted this word. A sample of the translations
reads as follows:

‘I shall make a helper fit for him' (RSV); ‘I will make a fitting
helper for him' (New Jewish Publication Society); ‘I will make an aid fit
for him' (AB); ‘I will make him a helpmate' (JB); ‘I will make a suitable
partner for him' (NAB); ‘I will make him a helper comparable to him' (NKJV).

However, the customary translation of the two words `ezer kenegdo as
"helper fit is almost certainly wrong. Recently R. David Freedman has
pointed out that the Hebrew word ezer is a combination of two roots:
`-z-r, meaning "to rescue, to save," and g-z-r, meaning "to be strong." The
difference between the two is the first letter in Hebrew. Today that
letter is silent in Hebrew; but in ancient times, it was a guttural sound formed
in the back of the throat. The "g" was a ghayyin, and it came to
use the same Hebrew symbol as the other sound, `ayin. But the fact
that they were pronounced differently is clear from such place names which
preserve the "g" sound, such as Gaza or Gomorrah. Some Semitic languages
distinguished between these two signs and others did not. For example,
Ugaritic did make a distinction between the `ayin and the ghayyin;
Hebrew did not. (R. David Freedman, "Woman, a Power Equal to a Man,"
Biblical Archaeology Review 9 [1983]: 56-58).

It would appear that sometime around 1500 B.C., these two signs began to be
represented by one sign in Phoenician. Consequently, the two "phonemes"
merged into one "grapheme." What had been two different roots merged into one,
much as in English the one word "fast" can refer to a person's speed, abstinence
from food, his or her slyness in a "fast deal," or the adamant way in which
someone holds "fast" to positions. The noun `ezer occurs twenty-one
times in the Old Testament. In many of the passages, it is used in
parallelism to words that clearly denote strength or power. Some examples
are:

"There is none like the God of Jeshurun, The Rider of the Heavens in your
strength (`-z-r), and on the clouds in his majesty." (Deut. 33:26,
[author's] translation)

"Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord?
He is the shield of your strength (`-z-r) and the sword of your majesty."
(Deut. 33:29, [author's] translation)

The case that begins to build is that we can be sure that `ezer means
"strength" or "power" whenever it is used in parallelism with words for majesty
or other words for power such as `oz or `uzzo. In fact, the
presence of two names for one king, Azariah and Uzziah, both referring to God's
strength, makes it abundantly clear that the root `ezer meaning
"strength" was known in Hebrew.

Therefore, could we conclude that Genesis 2:18 be translated as "I will make a
power [or strength] corresponding to man." Freedman even suggests on the
basis of later Hebrew that the second word in the Hebrew expression found in
this verse should be rendered equal to him. If so, then God makes for the
man a woman fully his equal and fully his match. In this way, the man's
loneliness will be assuaged.

The same line of reasoning occurs with the apostle Paul, who urged in 1
Corinthians 11:10, "For this reason, a woman must have power [or authority] on
her head [that is to say, invested in her]."

This line of reasoning, which stresses full equality, is continued in Genesis
2:23 where Adam says of Eve, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,' for she was taken out of man." The idiomatic
sense of this phrase "bone of my bones" is a "very close relative" to "one of
us" or in effect "our equal."

The woman was never meant to be an assistant or "helpmate" to the man. The
word "mate" slipped into English since it was so close to the Old English word
"meet," which means "fit to" or "corresponding to" the man which comes from the
phrase that likely means "equal to."

What God had intended, then, was to make a "power" or "strength" for the man who
would in every way "correspond to him" or even "be his equal.""

The Torah Study for Reform Jews says, "From the time of creation, relationships
between spouses have at times been adversarial. In Genesis 2:18, God calls
woman an ezer kenegdo, a "helper against him." The great commentator
Rashi takes the term literally to make a wonderful point: "If he [Adam] is
worthy, [she will be] a help [ezer]. If he is not worthy [she will
be] against him [kenegdo] for strife." This Jewish study also described
man and woman facing each other with arms raised holding an arch between them,
giving a beautiful picture of equal responsibility